Taitung Hires Kaohsiung to Incinerate Waste, Must Ship Back 50,000 Tons of Bottom Ash a Year; Improper Dumping Risks Heavy Metal Contamination

"The price of burning waste in incinerators is hazardous bottom ash; commissioning another county or city to burn it for you does not come without a price either. The environmental pollution caused by this bottom ash obtained in exchange is the price!" Legislator Lin Shu-fen said today (the 22nd) at a press conference, pointing out that the Taitung County Government ships its waste out and commissions the Kaohsiung City Government to incinerate it on its behalf, and must ship back 50,000 tons of bottom ash a year. Unable to be properly utilized, it was instead dumped in the planned greening area of the Taitung County sewage treatment plant. Not only is there no impermeable paving on the surface, but there is also no impermeable liner underground, leaving the hazardous bottom ash to be leached by rainwater and have heavy metals dissolved out.

Lin Shu-fen and local environmental groups called on local county and city governments to carry out waste reduction. "Food waste accounts for 52% of household waste in Kaohsiung County, and food waste also accounts for 36% of Taitung's waste volume." If counties and cities could be encouraged to separate food waste for composting, household waste volume could be expected to fall by 40%, and bottom ash generation could also be reduced by 25%. They called on the Environmental Protection Administration to promote "zero waste," achieving waste reduction at the source, so as to reduce the amount handled by incinerators.

Taitung Outsources Its Waste, Must Ship Back 50,000 Tons of Bottom Ash a Year, Dumped in a Green Space Reserve?

At present, because Taitung County's incinerator has not been put into operation, all waste within the county is commissioned to Kaohsiung's incinerators for burning. "But the condition for burning on our behalf is that 1 metric ton of waste must be exchanged for 1.8 metric tons of bottom ash, which the Taitung County Government must bring back for reuse." Hsieh Ho-lin, secretary-general of the Taiwan Watch Institute, said that by calculation, if 80 metric tons of waste are shipped out each day and 144 metric tons of bottom ash are exchanged back, Taitung must ship back nearly 50,000 tons of bottom ash a year.

But how exactly did the Taitung County Government "reuse" the bottom ash exchanged back? Hsieh Ho-lin further pointed out that at first it wanted to dump it in the Zhiben Hot Spring Special Area, but this was suspended after opposition from councilors and residents; afterward, the county environmental protection bureau, without the consent of the county council or residents, in April 2017 arbitrarily dumped the bottom ash, under the name of reuse as "base fill material," in the planned greening area of the sewage treatment plant on the north side of the Taiping River estuary.

Not only was this batch of bottom ash dumped in a green space reserve, Lin Shu-fen and Hsieh Ho-lin further stated that neither the bottom nor the top of the dumping site was paved with an impermeable surface. If leached by rainwater over the long term, heavy metals in the bottom ash could be washed out and contaminate the soil and groundwater.

EPA: Planning "Food Waste Bioenergy Plants"

In response, Lin Tso-hsiang, deputy captain of the Inspection Team, also agreed with waste reduction and said that the administration is already planning "food waste bioenergy plants," with the first phase aiming to establish three, which will be able to handle 180,000 tons of food waste a year. Once the plan is reviewed and approved by the Executive Yuan, promotion can begin.

In addition, Lin Tso-hsiang also said that the administration is currently reexamining the local waste dispatch measures. As for whether the current exchange of 1 metric ton of waste for 1.8 metric tons of bottom ash is reasonable, it will discuss with each county and city to see how it should be adjusted.